Women from birth are looked at as inferior to men. As a society we label babies by the color of their blanket when they are born. Boys are given blue as girls are given pink blankets. This from the start separates the two genders. As boys grow they are given action figures and are taught to play rough games, and girls are given dolls and taught to play nice. These differences continue to cause a gap between the two genders.
As the American society has progressed, there are aspects that have failed to revolutionize. Americans have been unsuccessful in recognizing the equality of women in general. The intelligence of a woman has always been looked down upon by the male gender. Johanne Toussaint, an English professor stated that, "The views of women in which their role' is that of keeper of hearth and home while that of a man is to provide for and protect this weaker sex' a view which continues to define different social roles for men and women" (The Glass Ceiling). These differences in the social roles create a barricade in the workplace for women. The concept of the "Glass Ceiling" is a metaphoric term for the barrier that exists for women in the work place. As stated by Webster's dictionary the term glass ceiling is defined as, "the maximum position and salary some claim women are allowed to reach without any chances of further promotion or advancement within an employment scenario" (Websters).
Women have been unable to show their full potential due to the differences between them and the male gender. These differences have made it easy to validate the unequal treatment of women on all levels. These differences came to cause an imbalance in the two genders in the workplace. The term, "Glass Ceiling" was originally used in 1986 by two Wall Street Journal reporters. The two used the expression "to describe the invisible and artificial barriers that impeded women from advancing to senior leadership positions"